Tim Farron on the Housing Crisis

Posted on 23rd September 2015

The new Liberal Democrats leader Tim Farron has today declared at his party conference that housing is “the biggest single issue that politicians don’t talk about.”

According to the BBC, Mr Farron said that “for millions of British people, without a stable or affordable home, that stress, that instability that uncertainty is a debilitating reality, every single day. And I will not accept it. We will not tolerate it, so together we will fix it.”

The Housing Team at Hodge Jones & Allen would echo Mr Farron’s clear understanding and empathy for those facing housing stresses. Just this week one of our team, Ed Veale, is threatening judicial review proceedings against a number of Councils seeking to accommodate homeless families far away from their boroughs. One client, who has three children and has lived in London all her life, has been threatened by her Council that should she refuse an offer of accommodation 100 miles away in the West Midlands then they will immediately discharge their housing duty to her, leaving her street homeless.

Ed commented, “My client is terrified of what could be in store and she is in a lose-lose situation: if she accepts the offer, she will need to uproot her young family and move within days out of London to an unknown town – despite her children’s upcoming school exams and hospital surgical appointments; but if she refuses the offer, the Council will terminate her current accommodation and she will be forced to sofa-surf indefinitely, with all her belongings and children.”

Here at Hodge Jones & Allen we are committed to protecting the rights of those in need of suitable housing and, in line with Mr Farron and others, are committed to playing our part to “fix it.”